WFH

Mami was on unplanned leave on 25^th- Monday. I did not have any other option other than to work from home and with no one else to assist, it ended up in a disaster. Chittu thought it was a Sunday and wanted me to spend the entire time with her playing. If I leave her for a minute also, she started crying. And it was a challenge to keep her in the lap and work as she was keen in working on the laptop on my behalf with her own masterpiece keystrokes. To top it all, it being a Monday, I had a whole lot of deliverables and calls to attend. The sweet girl who used to sleep for 4 hrs straight after having pappu mammu at 9 in the morning did not sleep for even 2 hrs continuously. Same thing happened in the afternoon too, when I expected her to sleep for 2 hrs and she promptly got up in less than an hr. God only knows how I managed to push that day! It was so damn tough. And I decided then, that I am not going to take work from home option without a support. I seriously don’t know how people in the US manage this. Hats off to them!!

Today also mami is on leave – but this a planned one. I had taken WFH today too, but, I made S mama come over and take care of Chittu. I fed her in time and played with her in the little breaks that I took and things were a little better today. Thanks a ton Bro!

Tidbit updates – There is another 2^nd tiny white sprout on her lower jaw. She is in a biting spree now…and it hurts! I don’t know what we are going to do if she starts biting with fully grown milk teeth. Hope she doesn’t have her mom’s genes on this front. I am quite famous in the household for my bites that my chithis and athais talk about it in every family get together even after 25 odd years. Chittu is also biting her big toe – from 18^th June to be precise (I had a photograph to cross check the date J)This was something which I had been expecting her to do for quite sometime now – The Vadapathra sai / aalilai krishnar posture as I call it. She is the first baby whom I saw doing this act. All others, I had only heard. She was actually doing it occasionally since May, but it wasn’t perfect. Rather than lifting the leg, she used to lift her head. But now she does it in a picture perfect manner.

In the last week of June, Chittu had a terrible rash problem. It wasn’t a diaper rash. Actually, on a particular day, she pooped many times (though the consistency was normal) and because of that, what started as a dark reddish pink spot developed and became a severe rash. I don’t know what stopped me, but I did not go to the doc immediately for this. Actually the visit was due on July 2^nd – which was like a week from then. So I was ready to wait. And as per A&A’s advice in one of the previous posts, I liberally applied Vaseline many times a day for almost 5 days continuously. By the time we went to the doc, the rashes were almost gone. However, I explained it to her and as a preventive mechanism got a cream prescribed to cure it, if at all we face such a situation in future. We saw the photos taken in Guruvayoor during the Annapraasanam. They have come out very well and Chittu has a photogenic face J My colleagues from office came home to see Chittu. They had bought her a beautiful party frock and it looks damn good on her. When they were here, cameras were continuously flashing and a number of pictures have been taken. She played freely with them and they also enjoyed a great deal. Chittu in general has a soodu udambu. Most of the times her body temperature is .02 degrees above normal and by the time I decide to give her Crocin, it would cool down. Any new person lifting her would say “udambu konja sudra maadhiri irukke?” Initially I used to get panicked, but now I know that it is actually not fever but just body heat.

Ok, got an early morning flight to catch and we have to leave by 2.45 AM. I am thinking of not sleeping at all because, as I type this at 9.15 PM, Chittu is fast asleep on my lap for the past 45 mins or so and this is untime for her nap (which she rarely does). I am sure by the time she gets up and goes back to her 2^nd round of sleep, it will be 1. And the time would just be enough to get ready, prepare something for Chittu, pack and start. We will be back on Saturday early morning. This is Chittu’s first flight journey. And majority of the time, we will be travelling on road during this trip. Not sure how she would behave. Hope things are smooth as her first train journey to Guruvayoor. Let us see!!